Here's a nice PEV.

I didn't know that Jay Leno offered to buy a GM EV1 for $1 million and got turned down.

http://www.kingoftheroad.net/charge_across_america/charge_html/nimh_test2.html



It's down to wire for electric car's fans
Saturday, February 26, 2005

News from (Los Angeles Daily News)
by Dana Bartholomew

Thursday, February 24, 2005 - BURBANK -- After Chris Reeves first caught a look at the EV1, he'd do nearly anything to lease the electric sports car of the future. Now he'd do nearly anything to get one back.

Reeves is one of dozens of electric car buffs to stand vigil for 10 straight days hoping to save the last of the General Motors fleet -- 77 EV1s in California and roughly twice that number in New York -- from the crusher.

"If I could get my car back, I would lie in front of a (car) transporter," declared Reeves, 46, of Burbank, among a handful of protesters gazing at rows of torpedo-shape sports car beauties on the backlot of the General Motors Training Center in Burbank.

"I would offer $50,000 for one of these cars. I would remortgage my house for one of them. They're that good."

Mel Gibson once sang the theme from "Batman" in one. Danny DeVito got one on Father's Day wrapped in a big red bow. And car collector Jay Leno reportedly offered $1 million to own one -- and GM turned him down.

For the more than 800 former lessees of the pioneering electric vehicle from GM, they're now a club without a car.

An electric vehicle designed by General Motors years ahead of a California mandate to produce zero-emission cars, the EV1 turned heads. By 1999, GM built more than 1,000 EV1s, of which it leased 800 for between $300 and $600 a month before finally pulling the plug on its electric car program in 2003.

All Reeves and other EV1 enthusiasts say they want is a chance to buy their former wheels back for $25,000 each -- free of strings from the factory. And for GM to recharge its electric car program.

On Saturday, the group will hold a Burbank rally to include such celebrities as Ed Begley Jr. of "Six Feet Under," Alexandra Paul of "Baywatch" and Ted Danson of "Cheers."

"This is Death Row," said Chelsea Sexton, a former EV1 specialist, marketer and customer service rep for GM, staring through a chain-link fence at the "incarcerated" fleet as storm clouds raced over the horizon. "These cars are just sitting, waiting to be crushed -- to make EV pancakes out of them.

"GM is not just crushing a car, but a symbol of what's possible."

http://www.oeva.org/news/archive/2005_02_01_oeva-news.shtml
 
I was skeptical of the Toyota Prius at first because I am not impressed with it's MPG at all. If I can get 34 MPG out of a full size 2000 Pontiac Bonneville in the highway you would think a little Prius with help from an electric motor could get more than the unimpressive 45 MPG it gets. Although I recently read an article that popularity of the Prius will expand battery technology and make it cheaper to the point where it might help bring back the Electric Car. So for this reason alone, I suggest buying the Prius. Also I guess there's some hackers that will throw in a much larger battery and add a plug and some people are using the Prius as an all electric vehicle right now with no need of any oil. Give the middle finger to opec.

"Dude, where's my electric car?"
 
Hi, found this topic on Yahoo.

We all love EVs, I'm sure. I've read instructions on how to turn a Prius into a plug in EV/hybrid. The reports are (and I do believe them) that most people were getting between 90 and 110 MPG by changing the batteries out to Lithium (no specification of Li-Ion or Li-Polymer) and adding a plug. 900-1200 miles is not bad. I'd really like to get away from fossil fuels all-together as well.

I'm writing to Jay Leno tonight to find out if he'll help sponsor (or at least endorse) an electric sports car project my company is planning. I think with him backing it, it would make a great impact.

Good luck people. I hope we're all successful in getting our EVs and screwing big oil until they're dry and raw.

Mg.
 
Interesting thread on 3 counts:
  • Not nearly enough octane to be in the Politics & Religion Forum (where it was located at the start of this post reply) :D
  • Always great to read about new environmentally positive ventures - especially in SoCal - the Great American hotbed of car aficionados
  • And, none other than entrepreneurial Don Bright himself has been involved with electric cars long before it was considered fashionable
 
It's funny you say that. I'm 23 years old, and I've never thought of electric vehicles ever being fashionable. And I understand what you mean by that so don't get me wrong.

As much as we like these topics, it's always going to be more interesting to me to see that the majority of people wouldn't even know the difference between combustion engines, hybrid-electric, and electric vehicles if we never told them what they were driving. So calling an time of technology a fashion statement might be a little presumptuous. Yes, our environment is at stake and so much more can be said for current times, but even if those items were not problems and might never be, I would still stand in the same place as I do today; this is a technology that should be further explored until we feel that it cannot go any further. (If that's possible.)

I'm not a radical, but to me, necessity is NOT the mother of invention. We have many technologies today that did not come from necessity. The truth is that we could live without technology.

That being said, I don't feel that electric cars will be the majority of cars on the road until either the battery range to charge time ratio is greatly increased, or until wireless energy transfer technology is put back on the burner. For those of you that don't know what that technology is, it's a proven technology that allows power to be transferred via non-metal conduction. (i.e. crystal vibrations, magnetic fields, etc.)

I do feel that this topic belongs in this category since it has MUCH to do with politics. But that's just my stance. I don't know if the creator of this thread had the same idea as I do, but then again, it was created in 2005 and some circumstances were different.
 
Battery technology is making a huge, huge leap forward currently. Nano technology makes it possible to greatly increase the surface area of the plates in a Lithium rechargeable battery and companies are working to bring this technology to the market. Full recharge in 5 minutes is possible with 10 times the storage in the same volume. Nobody is going to test drive a car with those and buy a standard issue car. There will be less often "filling up", smoother acceleration, less fuel costs, better for the environs, rechargeable via a plug, hybrid, etc, there should be a swift transition to the new technology, something like from VHS to DVD's.

I could get 1000 amperes of solar power on the roof of my house, charge a battery in the garage and use it to recharge the car at night or direct charge the car in the daytime. The initial cost would be high but if gas is in the $3 range it might actually make economic sense.
 
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